Sudan conflict deaths 'substantially underreported': study
The findings came from a report by researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
They found that in the first 14 months of the conflict, between April 2023 and June 2024, more than 61,000 people died of all causes in Khartoum State - a 50 percent increase in the pre-war death rate.
Of those deaths, 26,000 were attributed directly to violence - a figure significantly higher than the 20,178 intentional-injury deaths reported for the entire country by the data collection and analysis NGO Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED).
"Our findings suggest that deaths have largely gone undetected," said the LSHTM report.
The researchers said it was the first study to describe patterns of wartime mortality across Sudan and provide an empirical estimate of all-cause mortality in Khartoum State.
"The estimated intentional-injury deaths in Khartoum alone are significantly higher than killings reported for the entire country during the same period, highlighting substantial underreporting," the report said.
Collecting casualty numbers has been hampered by the lack of raw data and the difficulty in obtaining it.
LSHTM researchers collated individual death lists from a public survey and obituaries shared on social media, as well as from another survey published on private networks.
The analysis found that across most of the country during the conflict, the leading causes of death were preventable disease and starvation.
Deaths due to violence were proportionally highest in the Kordofan and Darfur regions.
"Our findings reveal the severe and largely invisible impact of the war on Sudanese lives, especially of preventable disease and starvation," said Maysoon Dahab, lead author at the LSHTM.
"The overwhelming level of killings in Kordofan and Darfur indicate wars within a war," he added.
War broke out in April 2023 between the army under the country's de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
Last month, United Nations experts accused the warring sides of using "starvation tactics" against 25 million civilians.
Three major aid organisations have warned of a "historic" hunger crisis as families resort to eating leaves and insects.
